User:Briangold

BRIAN GOLD is me. I was born in 1961 in Liverpool, England and grew up there amidst the swinging 60's of The Beatles and Merseysound as well as the 70's of heavy metal, country rock, glam-rock and punk. These were my influences and whilst there have been many musical achievements during the 80's and 90's for me the 70's was definitely the most creative of times. In that decade such classics as Abbey Road, Let It Be, Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall, Never Mind The Bollocks, Rumours and many others were born.

Nowadays I'm married with a grown-up family and spend my weekends doing what I love - singing and playing guitar in pubs and clubs. I would say I've chosen the easy route because I only do covers and nothing original. This is basically because I have little talent for songwriting and am aware that without exception no-one wants to hear some mid 40's guy forcing his own rubbish on them when they can instead sing along and dance to all the classics they know and love so well.

I do have my own web site and it contains pictures and samples of some of the songs I do in my gigs. I get paid for my gigs and that's as well because some of the venues are an hour away and can be poorly attended. When you spend a Saturday night from 6pm until 1am driving then setting up and performing sweatily to a disinterested and very smokey lounge, the money makes up for it!

I consider myself a very good performer and indeed musician because I actually play guitar along with my backing tracks. Backing tracks are important because the pubs and clubs want to here the full band sound but pay for solo or duo performers. My backing tracks are carefully created by me to exclude the guitar bits so I can add them live. It works for me and is cheaper and much less hassle than having to put up with the idiosyncracies and difficulties of a band. All bands have weak and strong links and the trick is to emphasize the strong and hide the weak. Trouble is, not many people are actually honest enough to admit they're the weak and some have too much of an ego and assume they're the strong. Result is a loose (as opposed to tight) unit and often chaos.

Don't get me wrong, some bands have a superb blend of talented guys who complement each other nicely. But the majority don't. I actually prefer playing solo for all these reasons (I was in several bands from time to time when I was younger).

Enough for now.

Brian